BERLIN
Hamburg to Berlin rail map.
Arrival in Berlin..What a wake up call from our arrivals to the past few places. Berlin greeted us with masses of humans from all walks of life including many homeless, emergency service vehicle sirens wailing, seemingly in competition of each other, and frequent wafts of eau du urine.
Not to be put off after the obligatory dropping off of luggage and checking in to our hotel we set off to explore. Simon’s stroke of genius was to do our own ‘hop on/hop off’ tour and we purchased a 24 hour public transport pass for 10 euros each. We were surprised that our tickets were not checked once. Whilst in the sleepy hollow of Tromso a ticket inspector boarded one of the buses we were on. She got on, dressed like any regular member of the public and sat down. As soon as the bus pulled off she stood up and started yelling something in Norwegian closely followed again in English. “Ticket inspection. If you do not have a ticket by now it is too LATE!!! GULP!
We visited many of the top tourist attractions of which there are photos below. Alexanderplatz is rumoured be home to many beautiful old buildings. Unfortunately these seem to have been obliterated by tall modern buildings and is now, what appeared to us, to be a large shopping precinct. Not to worry though, Museum Island more than made up for this. Upon exiting the underground we were met with an oasis of calm and tranquility. Mahusive, beautiful ornate buildings which housed various museum pieces. We did not have time to explore any unfortunatley as it was close to closing time. We did enjoy almost an hour thought in these beautiful surroundings.
Remaining part of the Berlin Wall.
We both learnt much about the history of the Berlin Wall just by reading the plaques around the various places. There was a temporary exhibition that had been set up by someone who lived within the Berlin Walls and much insight was gained.
Simon also gained some additional insight with regard to lifts in hotels and making assumptions. A gentleman got into the same lift as us and he, as well as myself, exited on the 5th floor, which is where the rooms are located. I looked around and Simon had disappeared. I thought to myself..“Self, now where’s he gone?”. I got my phone to send him a message hoping that he could shed some light on my question to find that he had already sent a message simply saying ‘HELP!”. It transpired that he had assumed the guy got off on a floor before us as he did not see him tap his hotel card. The only option available to Simon, who had no such card on his person, was to return to the hotel reception and bar area. I got there pronto to rescue him, but I think Simon rather hoped I would be longer getting there!
